The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development loathes being characterised as a right-wing thinktank. The Paris-based organisation, born in the aftermath of the second world war as an adviser to western governments, promotes market capitalism. Is there a difference?

Many on the left will say it is splitting hairs to draw a distinction, but if right wing means protecting the incomes and savings of the already wealthy, then it can legitimately shake off the right-wing tag. It supports the vigorous renewal of business life that allows poor performers to go to the wall, but demands a high standard of education for all and accepts the need for extensive welfare programmes to protect workers from the worst effects of this renewal. The former defence secretary Liam Fox, who called for a bonfire of worker protections this week, lies well to the right of the OECD.

In its latest Going for Growth report, published on Thursday, the thinktank stresses the need for a reduction in top pay and taxes on wealth as much as it calls for labour market reforms that end protections for workers. And chief among its labour market reforms is the need to retrain workers for new types and styles of job. This work, says the OECD, must be sheltered from austerity measures, which should apply to less productive parts of the economy.

The report, which is supposed to form a blueprint for G20 finance ministers at their meeting in Mexico this weekend, fails to mention the UK government's "work for your benefits" scheme that forces young people, regardless of their academic or vocational background, to sit at the checkout for major retail chains, but it is hardly likely to pass the test.

In short, it argues that well-funded, self-improving reforms can still take place while public spending is cut. It admits closing the income inequality gap is difficult while this is going on (because putting workers out of work, even temporarily, depresses average incomes), but it says there is a quick pay-back in economic growth and rising employment.

Right wing or not, the pro-market capitalism agenda from the OECD adds to the considerable pressure on countries with high levels of debt. The arguments in the OECD paper, which runs to 227 pages, add intellectual weight to the demands of international lenders who want labour reforms and open markets as the price of their loans.

The report has won support in Berlin, which has become an evangelist for OECD-style measures in EU countries where it has lent money, though not so much in Germany itself.

For this reason alone, left-wing policymakers should pay attention to what the OECD has to say. There is a more balanced view of how a market economy should work than we find in the rantings of Tea Party supporters in the US or even the more considered, but ultimately anti-worker, proposals of our own right-wing thinktanks like Policy Exchange and the Institute of Economic Affairs.

The OECD's tax proposals are among the most attractive. It wants governments to hold back on income taxes in favour of consumption and wealth taxes. The change in emphasis is being adopted piecemeal by many governments, as the OECD notes in its report.

One reason to move quickly is the rapid reductions in corporation taxes across the west. President Barack Obama has signalled he is prepared to join the race to the bottom from the current US figure of 35% (UK 28%).

Without revenue from other sources, governments will be forced to cut back further. Obama favours re-instituting taxes on higher incomes. Maybe he should consider the OECD plans for land taxes that attack immovable wealth. Otherwise he will find he needs an IRS of twice the size to chase the rich for the tax money.

Europe could follow suit. After all, we have stagnant real incomes and rapidly rising wealth, mostly property, which is unproductive. We should encourage work and not the hoarding of wealth.